Stop senseless gun control

I am a hardworking, tax-paying, upstanding resident of Cecil County with grave concerns about the direction of our great state. The anti-gun legislation currently making its way through our state government is truly scary ("Md. gun laws set sights on the long term," April 2). Not only is it an extreme overreach of state authority and a violation of our constitutional rights as American citizens, it flies in the face of what was intended by the founders of our great nation.

The tragedy of all this is the fact that no life will be saved by this legislation (statistics will and have proven this). Unfortunately, that's not the point, the point is to restrict (preferably eliminate) the firearms rights in our state. The unintentional — I hope — consequences of this legislation are to alienate law abiding gun owners placing undue burden on them such as fingerprinting to purchase a handgun (making the experience similar to being arrested). Gun manufactures and businesses such as Benelli, Beretta, Stoeger and local gun shops that pay taxes and employ hundreds of Marylanders are being placed in a very precarious situation. The manufacture of the standard issue side arm for our military by Beretta requires the use of a high-capacity magazine which will no longer be allowed to be shipped into Maryland to subsequently be supplied to our troops.

The Maryland State Police are going to be responsible to audit all gun shops and manufacturing at least once every two years and if two or more documents are found to be out of compliance, the employee can be imprisoned. This will effectively make the risk of running a firearm-related business in Maryland unacceptable which may be the underlying purpose. The list goes on and on!

I vehemently oppose this legislation and implore you to vote against it.

Maryland should focus on correcting the mental health deficiency in background checks. Please start meeting the federal government's background check and mental health requirements for firearm purchase. Please start prosecuting people who are restricted from buying a gun when they attempt to purchase a firearm which violates federal and state law.